Saying Goodbye To “Spiro The Greek”: Astoria, Queens Mourns Death Of Imprisoned Crime Lord, Lucchese Mob Affiliate

Greek mob boss Spyredon (Spiro the Greek) Velentzas died of natural causes behind bars over the weekend at the age of 88, having lived his last three decades in federal prison for ordering the murder of the mastermind of the historic Pierre Hotel robbery. Velentzas’ family is honoring his final wishes and won’t be having a wake or funeral.

Originally hailing from Boston, Velentzas ran the Greek underworld in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s out of Astoria, Queens, overseeing large gambling and juice-loan networks that worked in conjunction with the Italian Lucchese crime family. He once bumped heads with Gambino mob don John Gotti regarding gambling turf, resulting in Gotti being intercepted on an FBI wire threatening to cut Spiro the Greek’s head off.

In 1992, Velentzas was found guilty of ordering the October 25, 1998 killing of Lucchese mob associate Sorecho (Sammy the Arab) Nalo, who was gunned down by Lucchese mob hit men on the phone with Velentzas at his travel agency. Nalo captained a burglary crew that robbed The Pierre Hotel of millions of dollars in cash, bonds and jewelry in an infamous winter of 1972 stick-up. Following the robbery, Nalo was suspected of cheating Lucchese mob administrators in the Pierre Hotel score and at the time of his murder, his gambling rackets were infringing on both Lucchese mob and Greek mob affairs in Queens.

Velentzas long claimed he was merely a pawn in a power-play aimed at removing Sammy the Arab launched by the new Lucchese mob pecking order and boss Vittorio (Little Vic) Amuso. Nalo told first responders to his shooting that Velentzas had set him up to be killed prior to succumbing to his fatal injuries. GR sources inside the Lucchese organization, both current and former, support Velentzas’ claim that he didn’t give the order for Nalo’s execution. Amuso, 89, continues to helm the Lucchese mob from prison today, serving his own life sentence for a series of unconnected mafia hits.

This Valentzas eventually came into power after the previous boss of New York's "Greek Mob" Peter (Pete the Greek) Kourakas died.

Kourakas was the original Greek mob guy to ever ally himself to the mob by becoming an associate of Tommy Lucchese's crew. Which thereby gave him the "power" he needed to lord over NYC's other Greek hoodlums.

On May 4, 2024, Spyredon “Spiro, Sagafias” Velentzas passed away in the FCI Allenwood prison. He was the alleged boss of the Greek mob in New York. He may have been the most powerful within the Greek ethnic crime element ever. There were others that were close to his level like Harry Peetros / Steve Bouras from Philly, and Mike Katranis / Pete Katranis in Detroit. The only one that was considered even higher than Spiro, was head of the “connection guys” in Chicago, Gus “Slim” Alex.

https://www.cosanostranews.com/2024/05/last-of-greek-crime-dons-of-us-passes.html